Project Structure

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investigating on
HYBRID-ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT.

Project Structure

The CENTRELINE project lasts 36 months (June 2017 – May 2020) and is organised in 5 work packages. It is structured around the research, experiments and innovation processes to perform the proof of concept for a ground-breaking approach to synergistic propulsion-airframe integration.

WP1 Reference Scenario, Concept Evaluation and SRIA Benchmarking

lays the foundation for the multidisciplinary design elaboration and concept validation actions performed in WP2 to WP4, and, it provides the concept evaluation and benchmarking platform for the project. Two tasks are dedicated to the identification of a most promising PFC aircraft layout and the definition of a realistic benchmarking scenario for a potential PFC aircraft product in the 2035+ timeframe. Towards the end of the project, two tasks are devoted to the multi-disciplinary evaluation of the optimized PFC design, and, the comprehensive benchmarking against the SRIA environmental target settings.

WP2 Multi-disciplinary Concept Integration and Design Optimisation

performs the conceptual design and multi-disciplinary integration within CENTRELINE. The work package will provide a preliminary design description based on rapid design space exploration at a very early stage of the project, in order to found a solid basis for the detailed design and analysis activities performed in WP3 and WP4. Therefore, an efficient collaborative work flow will be established defining the interfaces between the individual disciplines and tasks. The optimized aircraft design results will directly feed into the multi-disciplinary concept evaluation and SRIA benchmarking tasks in WP1.

WP3 Aerodynamic Experimentation

is performing the experimental proof-of-concept for fuselage wake-filling propulsion integration. The combined aerodynamic and propulsive performance of the PFC aircraft configuration will be validated by two separate wind tunnel test campaigns. Parallel, high-fidelity numerical simulations of the wind tunnel test models will be developed. The wind tunnel models will be modular in order to investigate the influence of various design parameters on the flow characteristics and thereby the performance. Ultimately, the detailed numerical simulation models will be used to support the detailed design and optimization phase in WP2.

WP4 Turbo-electric Drive Train

is dedicated to the design of the electric drive train system under particular consideration of the geometric, structural and thermal integration. The design and analysis focus on two major aspects: The first one is the design and the integration of multi-megawatt generators into the podded engines to generate electric power for the fuselage fan drive. The second point is the design and the integration of the propulsive device at the aft-fuselage section.

WP5 Management and dissemination

provides an effective management framework for the CENTRELINE consortium to ensure the project coordination, achievement of project objectives and respect of contractual commitments. WP5 will also coordinate the project’s communication and dissemination activities and exploitation of research and innovation results for sustainable impact. In CENTRELINE the management tasks are shared between BHL (CENTRELINE coordinator) and ARTTIC (project office).